2 particular instances of a tackle are defined, hand in to dislodge the ball or shoulder to shoulder on the man but it is nowhere near comprehensive enough and impossible to implement without more detail about what is acceptable and what is not. the left-right-left-right rabbit punches thing should be banned and knocking a smaller opponent over with a fare shoulder shouldn’t be a free or yellow card which it often is. hurting someone with a fair shoulder shouldnt be a yellow either which it often is. i dont have a rulebook handy but i would guess there is a couple of lines on the tackle- there needs to be a block of regulation with some original thinking and it needs to be implemented.

Shoulder to shoulder is not defined for me in the tackle, as I understand it, the only statement is that incidental contact between players going for the ball in the same direction is allowed and one foot must be on the ground.
The only tackle allowed is on the ball with one open hand. The slap with one hand after the other thing is usually from behind and quite often two hands connect with the ball so is a foul.

i really hope that is not through exile what you say about the only mention being “incidental contact”. a shoulder has been a skill of the game as long as I have known it and when done right is one of the best to see. it is often deliberately done wrong from the blind side of a player and aimed at the midrift as he lays a ball off or punches in cluxtons case the other week. theses are deliberate attempts to seriously injure a player and should receive a 3 match ban. a proper shoulder was changed a few years back so that now both players must be going in the same direction and it must be side to side. that was progressive and an attempt to take the cowardly stuff out of the game. it also made the shoulder much harder to execute and as a result, most players cant do it now and stay clear, an unfortunate consequence. we have 2 of the best in jamesie and flynner.

It absolutely emptied Mullins, left him on the deck for 5/6 minutes if I recall correctly. Still can’t believe Mullins came back on 2nd half. Would love to hear Mullins take on it.

To the best of my knowledge he was severely concussed and should not hve played on. He did not play against Rathnew and did not play again for quite some time afterwards.

You can argue about the legality of it and I did at the time. I can understand how some people might see it as perfectly legal. But I would argue that no sport anywhere should allow a player to hit another player with such violenct consequences. Mullins was blessed he wasn’t seriously injured. Arguably he was if one considers concussion a serious injury. I certainly never want to see any player hit so hard again.

Don’t really think it was a question of how hard he was hit, it was more being caught by the unexpected, players lay into each other with big hits all the time and there is rarely any serious consequence, but if you are caught by surprise it is a different story.

Don’t really think it was a question of how hard he was hit, it was more being caught by the unexpected, players lay into each other with big hits all the time and there is rarely any serious consequence, but if you are caught by surprise it is a different story.

That’s why I considered it dangerous play. There has to be some duty of care to your opponent. Especially when it comes to hits or tackles that can affect the head.